Tafsir of An-Naml 27:12

"And insert your hand into your jayb (pocket/opening)": That is, the jayb of your shirt, which is the opening for the head, from the part that is open toward the chest—not that which is used for coins and the like, as is known today, because that is a later innovation. It was not said, "into your sleeve," because he, peace be upon him, was wearing at that time a woolen garment (mudra'ah) without sleeves. It has been said that the jayb is the shirt itself, because it is yujab—meaning it is cut—making it a verbal noun in the sense of a passive participle. Al-Suddi said: "Into your jayb," meaning under your armpit. Perhaps he intended that the meaning of "insert it into your jayb" is "place it under your armpit." His garment, peace be upon him, was—as narrated from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both—without buttons.

It has been mentioned in some reports that our Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had an open-chested shirt at times. In the Sunan of Abu Dawood, there is a chapter titled "On Unbuttoned [Shirts]." He then records therein, through the chain of Mu'awiyah ibn Qurrah, who said: "My father told me: 'I came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with a group from Muzaynah, and we pledged our allegiance to him. His shirt was unbuttoned.'" In another narration by Al-Baghawi in Mu'jam al-Sahabah: "Unbuttoned." He said: "I pledged allegiance to him, then I inserted my hand into the jayb of his shirt and touched the Seal [of Prophethood]." Urwah said: "I never saw Mu'awiyah nor his father ever buttoned their shirts; they never buttoned them."

It also came to pass that he, peace be upon him, commanded that buttons be fastened. Al-Tabarani recorded from Zayd ibn Abi Awfa that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, looked at Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with him, and noticed his buttons were undone, so the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, fastened them with his own hand and said: "Gather the folds of your garment at your chest." In these two accounts, it is evident that the jayb of the shirt at that time was on the chest, just as it is for the Arabs today. This refutes the claim that [the jayb on the chest] is contrary to the Sunnah or that it is among the rituals of the Jews.

His command, Exalted is He, for him to insert his hand into his jayb—despite His ability, Glory be to Him, to make it white without the act of insertion—is for the sake of the trial. It belongs to Him, Exalted is He, to test His servants with whatever He wills.

The manifest view is that His saying, Exalted is He, "you will bring it out," is the answer to the imperative, because its emergence is consequent to its insertion. It is said that there is an ellipsis in the speech: the estimation is "insert your hand into your jayb, it will enter, and bring it out, it will come out." Thus, from the first part, that which corresponds to the second was deleted, and from the second, that which corresponds to the first was deleted; so there is in the speech the art of ihtibak (interlocking ellipsis), which is an affectation that is unnecessary.

His saying, Exalted is He, "white," is a state (hal), as is His saying, Exalted is He, "without evil," which is a precautionary exclusion (ihtiras), and discussion regarding it has already preceded. Likewise, His saying, Glory be to Him, "among nine signs," means: a sign counted as one of nine signs, or a miracle of yours among them. The nine are: the splitting of the sea, the flood, the locusts, the lice, the frogs, the blood, the tamsah (the transformation of their properties into stone), the drought in their wildernesses, and the decrease in their crops. Whoever does not count the staff and the hand among the nine counts the drought and the decrease in crops as one, and does not count the splitting [of the sea] among them, because he, peace be upon him, was not sent with it to Pharaoh, even if it preceded it by a little. Whoever does count it says: it suffices that Pharaoh witnessed it at the time of [the prophet's] being sent, or that he was sent with it to those who believed from his people and those who remained of the Copts who did not believe. In Al-Taqrib, it is said that the tamsah, the drought, and the decrease [in crops] return to a single thing; so the nine are: this one, the staff, the hand, and the remainder of those mentioned. The author of Al-Fara'id held that the locusts and the lice are one, and the drought and the decrease are one.

It is permissible that "among nine signs" is a new sentence, disconnected from what precedes it, and is linked to an implicit verb, meaning: "Go with nine signs." This is indicated by His saying, Exalted is He, afterwards: "But when Our signs came to them." "In" (fi) is in the sense of "with" (ma'a). An analogy for this ellipsis is the saying: "They came to my fire, so I said, 'Who are you?' They said, 'The Jinn.' I said, 'Stay in the darkness,' and I said, 'Come to the food,' and a party among them said, 'The Jinn envy humans the food.'" For the estimation is "come to the food." His saying, Exalted is He, "to Pharaoh and his people," is linked to this implicit verb. According to the previous view, it is linked to an implicit [verb/phrase] which acts as a state (hal), meaning "sent or commissioned to Pharaoh." Regardless, His saying, Exalted is He, "Indeed, they were a defiantly disobedient people" is a beginning of a clarifying statement, as if it were said: "Why were you sent to them with what was mentioned?" It was said: "Indeed, they were..." and so on. The intent of fisq (defiant disobedience) is either the departure from what the Divine Law obliged them to follow—if we say that someone had been sent before Moses, peace be upon him, who obliged them to follow him, namely Joseph, peace be upon him—or the departure from what the intellect and the requirement of innate nature (fitrah) obliged, if we say that no one had been sent to them before him, peace be upon him.